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January 22, 2002
REVIEW: Tales from east and west
THE book Mashriq-o-maghrib kay afsanay carries 12 stories translated by Humra Khaleeq. In his foreword, Dr Mohammad Ali Siddiqui has introduced Humra as the scion of a literary family — her husband being Khaleeq Ibrahim Khaleeq and her mother Rabia Pinhan, a renowned poetess. The quality of her translation aptly bears out that Humra has all the characteristics of an accomplished writer in her genes.
The selected stories have been adapted from the works of writers as diverse as Maupassant and Jomo Kenyatta, interspersed with stories from Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and some Bengali and Hindi writers. The three stories from Marquez, a respected name in literary circles round the world, amply represent the subtlety and mystique of the author’s style. The stories selected are “I just came to make a phone call”, “The pleasant moment of Miss Forbes” and “The woman who came at six pm” and it is significant that the translator is on the same wavelength as the writer.
Maupassant is one of those French writers who have been widely translated while Prabhat is the most popular short story writer of Bengali language after Rabindranath Tagore.
The stories revolve round ordinary people such as Miss Heriette (Maupassant) who falls in love with a painter but one day finding him flirting with the young maid, commits suicide. Mukhopadhiye’s story “The expensive flowers” is about the author meeting a young English girl in London who wants him to locate her brother who had been serving in India but had not been in touch for a long time.
“Jungle ke muazzazin” (The VIPs of the jungle) by Jomo Kenyatta, the first president of Kenya, is a must read. This short story reminds the reader of the Animal farm by George Orwell and ends on the note, “...peace is very expensive but to attain it, even the biggest price is not very high”.
The book as a whole is indeed a treat but Humra has only introduced a couple of writers and the reader does not have any clue about the background of the others. Moreover, there are many lapses in proof reading, which mar the flow of the text.
Mashriq-o-maghrib kay Afsanay (stories from the east and the west)
Translated by Humra Khaleeq
Published by Academy Bazyaft, Karachi Tel: 021-6349835
212pp. Rs150
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